By
using any of these services, or registering any of our software,
you are contributing to our mission which is using what skills we
may have to be of help to you. You have our deepest appreciation!

CD
Gallery

Here
you’ll find many useful software product CD’s that we offer
for a small fee to cover materials, postage charges and compensate for a little of our time.
These apps have not just been offered "willy-nilly":
we have spent considerable time testing before recommending and
placing on this page. Some of these are software applications, some
are used for security, forensic and system recovery purposes and
others are low cost Operating System installations. We welcome any questions, comments or requests (we'll do our best to find a low cost software solution on CD/ DVD), you may have - just email us at
mb@code-it.com.

All
CDs (or DVDs if more space is required) are legal and derived
from reliable sources: tested by us before shipping. Use to save
time having to download, restore a system or software application
easily: archive software that may turn from free to shareware
thus not be available any more. Even scan your system for viruses or backup data without
installing any software – run from a “Live CD”.

Disclaimer:
you too can create any of these ‘live CDs’ by downloading the
ISO image (may take up to two hours) then using your CD Writing
software to convert the ISO image to a CD or DVD. We are just
providing this service so you don’t have to spend your time
crafting them and be paid for materials and postage used - plus make a very
little profit for our time/work.

Upon
ordering - we ship your CD via USPS within 24 hours. You should
expect to receive within 3 to 5 days after ordering (unless noted
in the product description or order date falls on the week end).

All
current versions of Windows and Linux software plus BASH scripts that we have developed, and offer
to the general public (including the source code for all our
Linux software): Full
installation binaries and Linux source code on CD-R with Legal
Registration key-code if needed. Can be installedon
as many personal systems as desired. Cost is $19.95 + $3.00
shipping/ handling.

Used
for a new install on any PC that meats the operating specs. IMHO
- I would NOT recommend installing and using Windows 10 for your
operating system - but of course your mileage may vary! Way to
much spying going on with it for my taste. This has been put on
this page in case someone might need it for testing purposes.

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster processor or SoC

RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) for 32-bit or 2 GB for 64-bit

Hard disk space: 16 GB for 32-bit OS 20 GB for 64-bit OS

Graphics card: DirectX 9 or later with WDDM 1.0 driver

Display: 800x600

Windows Operating System
Software

WINDOWS
PC SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS ( personally
recommend)

WireShark for Windows (32
or 64-bit):
Wireshark® is a network protocol analyzer. It lets you capture and
interactively browse the traffic running on a computer network. It has a rich
and powerful feature set and is world's most popular tool of its kind. Network
professionals, security experts, developers, and educators around the world use
it regularly.
Full
instillation CD: no Registration key-code needed. Can be
installed on as many systems as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00
shipping.

PortableApps
for Windows: I've always been a fan of what's know as
"Portable Software"; meaning, software apps that will
run off a thumb drive or for that matter any type drive. Sure,
they run a little slower but the big advantage is that the
software is not installed on your systems hard drive - All
Your Favorite Apps, Everywhere.

Lets you have all
your favorite apps self contained to use from a synced cloud
folder, on a local PC's internal or external drive, or carried
on a portable device. Your browser with your bookmarks and
extensions, your office suite, your photo editor, your music
collection, your games, your development tools and more.
Everything you need for work and play with you on every PC you
use. Work, home, school, visiting family and friends, even while
traveling. And everything stays in that one location, too,
making it easy to install, update, and backup. Carried on a
portable drive, every PC becomes your PC. Oh, by the way - all
of the over 200 apps are 100% free - open source.
Cost is $5.95 + $3.00
shipping.

GIMP
v2.8 for Windows (32 and 64-bit):
GIMP is an
powerful image editor. Whether
you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator, or
scientist, GIMP provides you with sophisticated tools to get
your job done. Full
instillation CD: no Registration key-code needed. Can be
installed on as many systems as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00
shipping.

Apache
OpenOffice for Windows (32 and 64-bit): is easy to learn,
and if you're already using another office software package,
you'll take to OpenOffice straight away. And if you already have
files from another office package - OpenOffice will probably
read them with no difficulty. Full
instillation CD: no Registration key-code needed. Can be
installed on as many systems as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00
shipping.

ClipGrab
for Windows v3.6.6 (32 and 64-bit):
ClipGrab is a downloader and converter for YouTube, Vimeo,
Facebook and many other on-line video sites. It converts
downloaded videos to MPEG4, MP3 or other formats in just one
easy step. Full instillation CD: no Registration key-code
needed. Can be installed on as many systems as desired. Cost is
$5.95 + $3.00 shipping. Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7 and
8.

Windows
Software on CD - all just $5.95 + S/H

LIVE
CDs USED FOR VIRUS SCAN OR DATA RECOVERY WITHOUT HAVING TO
INSTALL ON YOUR SYSTEM:

So
what the heck is a “Live CD” you might be thinking. A live CD
is something that most Windows users aren’t too familiar with –
it’s a CD that if inserted in the CD Drive at startup it loads
into memory and runs without installing anything on the hard
drive. It’s a great tool to run a virus scan or to recover data
from a corrupt Windows (or Linux) system.

AVG
Virus Scan on Live CD: AVG
Rescue CD attempts to repair system crashes and returns your
systems to operating at full capacity. If malware gets
past your security software, you can quickly get your PC back up
and running smoothly. Option to update virus definitions if connected to the iNet: for Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/Server 2008/7/8/10 and all Linux Distros. It's a clean bill of health for your
system — without the bill. Live CD:
no Registration key-code needed. Can be used on as many systems
as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00 shipping.

Hiren
Boot Live CD: The
tagline for Hiren Boot CD reads “a first aid kit for your
computer” – and that it is! Hiren Boot CD is one of the more
popular Rescue CDs out there and contains a wealth of tools
including defrag tools, driver tools, backup tools, antivirus
and anti-malware tools, rootkit detection tools, secure data
wiping tools, and partitioning tools, among others. No
self respecting hacker would be without this classic forensic
tool! Live
CD: no Registration key-code needed. Can be used on as many
systems as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00 shipping.

FalconFour’s
Ultimate Boot CD:based
upon the Hiren Boot CD with a customized boot menu and a whole
bunch of updated tools thrown in. F4’s UBCD contains tools
that provide system information, tools that recover/repair
broken partitions, tools that recover data, as well as file
utilities, password recovery tools, network tools, malware
removal tools and much more. Live CD:
no Registration key-code needed. Can be used on as many systems
as desired. Cost is $5.95 + $3.00 shipping.

Name of 'Live CD'
wanted - all just $5.95 + S/H

LIVE
CDs FOR MOST ANY LINUX DISTRO (version):

UberStudent is an
operating system and suite of programs for everyone, especially
higher education and secondary students, those who teach them,
and their schools. Based on Linux technologies, UberStudent is a
complete, ready-to-go, and "out-of-the-box" platform
that is ideal for every computer user, not just newcomers to
Linux. Learning UberStudent means learning the tasks and habits
common to all high-performing students, while also enjoying
immediate user-friendly productivity and learning cross-platform
computer fluency for life.

UberStudent is designed around
a "core academic skills" approach to student
success—the research and writing, reading, studying, and
self-management skills that are essential to all students
regardless of their academic major, as well as secondary
students who are preparing for college. UberStudent can be
easily extended for specific academic disciplines, especially
STEM areas, using its on-board tools for discovering and
installing software.

As the user's Linux for
everyone,UberStudent is also decked out for
graphics, multimedia, messaging, and even games for not only
learning but needed down time, all with the needs of especially
students in mind.

Personal Note: I
ran across this Distro - sounded interesting so gave it a try. I
quickly experienced why they say it's mainly for students and
writers - but you know what? Most all of us is a
"student" of some kind - even old geezers like me! I
LOVE THIS LINUX DISTRO - it's a "live CD" that can be
used from memory or installed, at any time, if you decide to.

Name of 'Live CD'
wanted - all just $5.95 + S/H

Revive
Your Old Hardware With Linux

Bring
your old PC or removable media back to life with any of these
super small Linux distros. This could be a great way to provide a
simple computer for a relative who doesn’t need all the bloat
of a more complex operating system. These Linux distros will
allow them to surf the web, watch and listen to media, check
email, and create simple documents.

ArchBang

ArchBang
is based on Arch Linux and inspired by CrunchBang, which was
another lightweight Linux distro. It’s is essentially Arch
Linux made easier. It includes the power and flexibility of Arch
Linux without the complex setup and installation.

ArchBang
works on i686 or x86_64 compatible machines, uses 700MB of disk
space, and requires 256MB of memory. It uses the OpenBox window
manager

You
can use ArchBang as a fully featured desktop operating system or
as a portable, live OS. It’s fast, stable, and always up to
date.

Damn
Small Linux

Damn
Small Linux, or DSL, was designed to run graphical
applications on older PC hardware. Think machines with early
Pentium processors (such as the 486 series) and very little
memory. It’s light enough to run with as little as 16MB of
memory, and it can also be run fully in memory with as little as
128MB.

DSL
started as an experiment to see how much software could fit into
50MB, but it eventually evolved into a full-fledged Linux
distribution. It can be installed onto storage media with small
capacities, like USB flash drives and memory cards, and onto a
CD. You can also do a traditional installation onto a hard drive
as a Debian desktop OS.

DSL
includes a nearly complete desktop, and a very small core of
command line tools. The applications available in DSL have been
chosen for the best balance of functionality, size, and speed.

Elive

Elive
is a lightweight Linux distro with its own custom desktop
environment. It’s based on Debian and comes pre-installed with
all the apps you need, including games.

If
you’ve used a Mac before, you should be comfortable using
Elive. It has a Mac-like dock and virtual desktops like Mac’s
Spaces.

The
desktop in Elive is a customized version of Enlightenment which
offers a light and beautiful experience. It works well, even on
very old PCs. The minimum requirements for Elive are a CPU speed
of 300MHz, 700MB of disk space, and 128MB of memory.

Porteus

Porteus
is a lightweight, but complete, Linux distro that is optimized to
run from a USB flash drive. Don’t have one? Don’t worry!
Porteus will also work on an SD card, CD, DVD, hard drive, or
other bootable storage media. It’s small and insanely fast,
allowing you to boot and get online while other operating systems
are still thinking about booting.

Porteus
runs on any Intel, AMD, or VIA x86/64 processor, requiring only
512MB of disk space and 256MB of memory. No hard disk is
required, as it can run from removable storage media. If you use
Porteus on a removable storage media device, you can take
advantage of its “Persistent” mode, which saves data directly
on the storage device.

It
is available in both 32-bit
(perfect for older PCs) and 64-bit.
A kiosk
edition is also available, which is a minimal system that is
locked down for use by the public on web terminals.

Puppy
Linux

Puppy
Linux is a very lightweight Linux distro that should only be
installed on and run from a USB flash drive, SD card, CD, DVD,
hard drive, or other bootable storage media.

The
minimum requirements include a 233MHz processor, 512MB free hard
drive space (to create an optional save file), and 128MB of
memory. The optional save file allows you to save your data
directly on the removable media and run the system, with your
saved data, on any computer.

The
minimum hardware requirements include an i486 or x86
Intel-compatible processor, 80MB of disk space, and 192MB of
memory (or as low as 16MB, depending on which version of SliTaz
you use).

While
SliTaz is running, you can use the removable media for other
tasks or even eject it. The system runs in memory. SliTaz also
has a “persistent” feature that allows you to store your data
and personal settings directly on the removable media.

When
the system is running you can eject the LiveCD and use your CD
drive for other tasks. The Live system provides a fully-featured,
working graphical distro and lets you keep your data and personal
settings on persistent media.

wattOS

WattOS
is a lightweight, fully featured Linux distro based on Ubuntu
that you can run from a USB flash drive, CD, or other removable
media, run in kiosk mode, or install to a hard drive.

The
minimum hardware requirements include any Intel or AMD processor,
700MB of disk space, and 192MB of memory for the Microwatt
edition of wattOS (more if you use the LXDE edition).

The
Microwatt edition is extremely lightweight and based on the i3
tiling window manager. It offers low resource requirements and
simplicity. The LXDE edition is a lightweight, fully featured,
and customizable desktop operating system that is great for
beginners.

Note:
When
asked for a login in wattOS, enter “guest” as the user name
and no password.

Name of 'Live CD'
wanted- all just $5.95 + S/H

WANT
A MORE POWERFUL AND POPULAR LINUX DISTRO?

The
bewildering choice and the ever increasing number of Linux
distributions can be confusing for those who are new to Linux.
This page section lists the most popular Linux distributions
(plus an honourable mention of FreeBSD, by far the most popular
of all of the BSDs), which are generally considered as most
widely-used by Linux users around the world. There are no figures
to back it up and there are many other distributions that might
suit your particular purpose better, but as a general rule, all
of these are popular and have very active forums or mailing lists
where you can ask questions if you get stuck.

Ubuntu,
Linux Mint and PCLinuxOS are considered the easiest for new users
who want to get productive in Linux as soon as possible without
having to master all its complexities. On the other end of the
spectrum, Slackware Linux, Arch Linux and FreeBSD are more
advanced distributions that require plenty of learning before
they can be used effectively. openSUSE, Fedora, Debian GNU/Linux
and Mageia can be classified as good "middle-road"
distributions. CentOS is an enterprise distribution, suitable for
those who prefer stability, reliability and long-term support
over cutting-edge features and software.

Linux
Mint

Linux
Mint, a distribution
based on Ubuntu, was first launched in 2006 by Clement Lefebvre,
a French-born IT specialist living in Ireland. Originally
maintaining a Linux web site dedicated to providing help, tips
and documentation to new Linux users, the author saw the
potential of developing a Linux distribution that would address
the many usability drawbacks associated with the generally more
technical, mainstream products. After soliciting feedback from
the visitors on his web site, he proceeded with building what
many refer to today as an "improved Ubuntu" or "Ubuntu
done right".

But Linux Mint is not just an Ubuntu
with a new set of applications and an updated desktop theme.
Since its beginnings, the developers have been adding a variety
of graphical "mint" tools for enhanced usability; this
includes mintDesktop - a utility for configuring the desktop
environment, mintMenu - a new and elegant menu structure for
easier navigation, mintInstall - an easy-to-use software
installer, and mintUpdate - a software updater, just to mention a
few more prominent ones among several other tools and hundreds of
additional improvements. The project also designs its own
artwork. Mint's reputation for ease of use has been further
enhanced by the inclusion of proprietary and patent-encumbered
multimedia codecs that are often absent from larger distributions
due to potential legal threats. Perhaps one of the best features
of Linux Mint is the fact that the developers listen to the users
and are always fast in implementing good suggestions.

While
Linux Mint is available as a free download, the project generates
revenue from donations, advertising and professional support
services. It doesn't have a fixed release schedule or a list of
planned features, but one can expect a new version of Linux Mint
several weeks after each Ubuntu long term support release.
Besides Mint's two "Main" editions which feature the
MATE and Cinnamon desktops, the project also builds editions with
alternative desktops, including KDE and Xfce. These editions are
often completed several weeks after the two "Main"
editions and may sometimes miss some of the "minty"
tools and other features found in the project's flagship
products. Another variant of the Mint line-up is a "Debian
Edition" based on Debian's Stable branch. The Debian edition
of Linux Mint provides a very stable base while the desktop
packages are updated more quickly than in Mint's "Main"
editions. Linux Mint does not adhere to the principles of
software freedom and it does not publish security advisories.

Pros:Superb
collection of "minty" tools developed in-house,
hundreds of user-friendly enhancements, inclusion of multimedia
codecs, open to users' suggestions

Ubuntu
The
launch of Ubuntu was
first announced in September 2004. Although a relative newcomer
to the Linux distribution scene, the project took off like no
other before, with its mailing lists soon filled in with
discussions by eager users and enthusiastic developers. In the
years that followed, Ubuntu grew to become the most popular
desktop Linux distribution and has greatly contributed towards
developing an easy-to-use and free desktop operating system that
can compete well with any proprietary ones available on the
market.

What was the reason for Ubuntu's stunning
success? Firstly, the project was created by Mark Shuttleworth, a
charismatic South African multimillionaire, a former Debian
developer and the world's second space tourist, whose company,
the Isle of Man-based Canonical Ltd, is currently financing the
project. Secondly, Ubuntu had learned from the mistakes of other
similar projects and avoided them from the start - it created an
excellent web-based infrastructure with a Wiki-style
documentation, creative bug-reporting facility, and professional
approach to the end users. And thirdly, thanks to its wealthy
founder, Ubuntu was able to ship free CDs to all interested
users, thus contributing to the rapid spread of the
distribution.

On the technical side of things: Ubuntu
is based on Debian "Sid" (unstable branch), but with
some prominent packages, such as GNOME, Firefox and LibreOffice,
updated to their latest versions. It uses a custom user interface
called "Unity". It has a predictable, 6-month release
schedule, with an occasional Long Term Support (LTS) release that
is supported with security updates for 5 years, depending on the
edition (non-LTS release are supported for 9 months). Other
special features of Ubuntu include an installable live DVD,
creative artwork and desktop themes, migration assistant for
Windows users, support for the latest technologies, such as 3D
desktop effects, easy installation of proprietary device drivers
for ATI and NVIDIA graphics cards and wireless networking, and
on-demand support for non-free or patent-encumbered media codecs.

My personal view: Ubuntu is the only Linux Distro, that I know of, that has Amazon Ads pre-installed - they figured out how to make a revenue from "free" long before M$ did with Windows 10. I don't really blame them for wanting to make some $ from link revenue but IMHO violates the "Linux Spirit".
Reminds me of "Adware" - don't know what else you'd call it ;-(

Pros:Fixed
release cycle and support period; long-term support (LTS)
variants with 5 years of security updates; novice-friendly;
wealth of documentation, both official and user-contributed

Cons:Lacks
compatibility with Debian; frequent major changes tend to drive
some users away, the Unity user interface has been criticised as
being more suitable for mobile devices than desktop computers;
non-LTS releases come with only 9 months of security support

Debian
GNU/LinuxDebian
GNU/Linux was first announced in 1993. Its founder, Ian Murdock,
envisaged the creation of a completely non-commercial project
developed by hundreds of volunteer developers in their spare
time. With sceptics far outnumbering optimists at the time, it
seemed destined to disintegrate and collapse, but the reality was
very different. Debian not only survived, it thrived and, in less
than a decade, it became the largest Linux distribution and
possibly the largest collaborative software project ever
created!

The success of Debian GNU/Linux can be
illustrated by the following numbers. It is developed by over
1,000 volunteer developers, its software repositories contain
close to 50,000 binary packages (compiled for 8 processor
architectures), and it is responsible for inspiring over 120
Debian-based distributions and live CDs. These figures are
unmatched by any other Linux-based operating system. The actual
development of Debian takes place in three main branches (or four
if one includes the bleeding-edge "experimental"
branch) of increasing levels of stability: "unstable"
(also known as "sid"), "testing" and
"stable". This progressive integration and
stabilisation of packages and features, together with the
project's well-established quality control mechanisms, has earned
Debian its reputation of being one of the best-tested and most
bug-free distributions available today.

However, this
lengthy and complex development style also has some drawbacks:
the stable releases of Debian are not particularly up-to-date and
they age rapidly, especially since new stable releases are only
published once every 1 - 3 years. Those users who prefer the
latest packages and technologies are forced to use the
potentially buggy Debian testing or unstable branches. The highly
democratic structures of Debian have led to controversial
decisions and gives rise to infighting among the developers. This
has contributed to stagnation and reluctance to make radical
decisions that would take the project forward.

Pros:Very
stable; remarkable quality control; includes over 30,000
software packages; supports more processor architectures than
any other Linux distribution

Cons:Conservative
- due to its support for many processor architectures, newer
technologies are not always included; slow release cycle (one
stable release every 1 - 3 years); discussions on developer
mailing lists and blogs can be uncultured at times

MageiaMageia
might be the newest distribution on this list, but its roots go
back to July 1998 when Gaël Duval launched Mandrake Linux. At
the time it was just a fork of Red Hat Linux with KDE as the
default desktop, better hardware detection and some user-friendly
features, but it gained instant popularity due to positive
reviews in the media. Mandrake was later turned into a commercial
enterprise and renamed to Mandriva (to avoid some
trademark-related hassles and to celebrate its merger with
Brazil's Conectiva) before almost going bankrupt in 2010. It was
eventually saved by a Russian venture capital firm, but this came
at a cost when the new management decided to lay off most of the
established Mandriva developers at the company's Paris
headquarters. Upon finding themselves without work, they decided
to form Mageia, a community project which is a logical
continuation of Mandrake and Mandriva, perhaps more so than
Mandriva itself.

Mageia is primarily a desktop
distribution. Its best-loved features are cutting-edge software,
superb system administration suite (Mageia Control Centre),
ability to attract a large number of volunteer contributors, and
extensive internationalisation support. It features one of the
easiest, yet powerful system installers on its installation DVD,
while it also releases a set of live images with either KDE or
GNOME desktops and comprehensive language support, with the
ability to install it onto a hard disk directly from the live
desktop session. The distribution's well-established package
management features, with powerful command-line options and a
graphical software management module, allow easy access to
thousands of software packages. The unique Mageia Control Center
continues to improve with each release, offering newcomers to
Linux a powerful tool for configuring just about any aspect of
their computer without ever reaching for the terminal.

While
Mageia has been off to a flying start since it was established in
September 2010, there is some concern over the developers'
ability to maintain the distribution over the long term where
much of the work is done on a volunteer basis. Also, it lacks the
buzz and infrastructure accompanying some of the bigger and more
profligate Linux distributions. The project's documentation could
also do with some improvement, while its 9-months release cycle
can also be viewed as a disadvantage in terms of generating news
and media excitement, especially when compared to other major
distributions which use a shorter, 6-month development process.

Pros:Beginner-friendly;
excellent central configuration utility; very good
out-of-the-box support for dozens of languages; installable live
media

Cons:Lacks
reputation and mindshare following its fork from Mandriva, some
concern over the developers' ability to maintain the
distribution long-term on a volunteer basis

Fedora
Although
Fedora was formally
unveiled only in September 2004, its origins effectively date
back to 1995 when it was launched by two Linux visionaries -- Bob
Young and Marc Ewing -- under the name of Red Hat Linux. The
company's first product, Red Hat Linux 1.0 "Mother's Day",
was released in the same year and was quickly followed by several
bug-fix updates. In 1997, Red Hat introduced its revolutionary
RPM package management system with dependency resolution and
other advanced features which greatly contributed to the
distribution's rapid rise in popularity and its overtaking of
Slackware Linux as the most widely-used Linux distribution in the
world. In later years, Red Hat standardised on a regular, 6-month
release schedule.

In 2003, just after the release of
Red Hat Linux 9, the company introduced some radical changes to
its product line-up. It retained the Red Hat trademark for its
commercial products, notably Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and
introduced Fedora Core (later renamed to Fedora), a Red
Hat-sponsored, but community-oriented distribution designed for
the "Linux hobbyist". After the initial criticism of
the changes, the Linux community accepted the "new"
distribution as a logical continuation of Red Hat Linux. A few
quality releases was all it took for Fedora to regain its former
status as one of the best-loved operating systems on the market.
At the same time, Red Hat quickly became the biggest and most
profitable Linux company in the world, with an innovative product
line-up, excellent customer support, and other popular
initiatives, such as its Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)
certification programme.

Although Fedora's direction
is still largely controlled by Red Hat, Inc. and the product is
sometimes seen -- rightly or wrongly -- as a test bed for Red Hat
Enterprise Linux, there is no denying that Fedora is one of the
most innovative distributions available today. Its contributions
to the Linux kernel, glibc and GCC are well-known and its more
recent integration of SELinux functionality, virtualisation
technologies, systemd service manager, cutting-edge journaled
file systems, and other enterprise-level features are much
appreciated among the company's customers. On a negative side,
Fedora still lacks a clear desktop-oriented strategy that would
make the product easier to use for those beyond the "Linux
hobbyist" target.

Pros:Highly
innovative; outstanding security features; large number of
supported packages; strict adherence to the free software
philosophy; availability of live CDs featuring many popular
desktop environments

Cons:Fedora's
priorities tend to lean towards enterprise features, rather than
desktop usability; some bleeding edge features, such as early
switch to KDE 4 and GNOME 3, occasionally alienate some desktop
users

openSUSE
The
beginnings of openSUSE
date back to 1992 when four German Linux enthusiasts -- Roland
Dyroff, Thomas Fehr, Hubert Mantel and Burchard Steinbild --
launched the project under the name of SuSE (Software und System
Entwicklung) Linux. In the early days, the young company sold
sets of floppy disks containing a German edition of Slackware
Linux, but it wasn't long before SuSE Linux became an independent
distribution with the launch of version 4.2 in May 1996. In the
following years, the developers adopted the RPM package
management format and introduced YaST, an easy-to-use graphical
system administration tool. Frequent releases, excellent printed
documentation, and easy availability of SuSE Linux in stores
across Europe and North America resulted in growing popularity
for the distribution.

SuSE Linux was acquired by
Novell, Inc. in late 2003, then fell into the hands of Attachmate
in November 2010. Major changes in the development, licensing and
availability of SUSE Linux followed shortly after the first
acquisition - YaST was released under the General Public License
(GPL), the ISO images were freely distributed from public
download servers, and, most significantly, the development of the
distribution was opened to public participation for the first
time. Since the launch of the openSUSE project and the release of
version 10.0 in October 2005, the distribution became completely
free in both senses of the word. The openSUSE code has become a
base system for Novell's commercial products, first named as
Novell Linux, but later renamed to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Today, openSUSE has
a large following of satisfied users. The principal reason for
openSUSE getting high marks from its users are pleasant and
polished desktop environments (KDE and GNOME), excellent system
administration utility (YaST), and, for those who buy the boxed
edition, some of the best printed documentation available with
any distribution. However, the infamous deal between Novell and
Microsoft, which apparently concedes to Microsoft's argument that
it has intellectual property rights over Linux, has resulted in a
string of condemnation by many Linux personalities and has
prompted some users to switch distributions. Although Novell has
downplayed the deal and Microsoft has yet to exercise any rights,
this issue remains a thorn in the side of the otherwise very
community-friendly Linux company.

Cons:Novell's
patent deal with Microsoft in November 2006 seemingly
legitimised Microsoft's intellectual property claims over Linux;
its resource-heavy desktop setup and graphical utilities are
sometimes seen as "bloated and slow"

Arch
Linux
The
KISS (keep it simple, stupid) philosophy of Arch
Linux was devised around the year 2002 by Judd Vinet, a Canadian
computer science graduate who launched the distribution in the
same year. For several years it lived as a marginal project
designed for intermediate and advanced Linux users and only shot
to stardom when it began promoting itself as a "rolling-release"
distribution that only needs to be installed once and which is
then kept up-to-date thanks to its powerful package manager and
an always fresh software repository. As a result, Arch Linux
"releases" are few and far between and are now limited
to a basic installation CD that is issued only when considerable
changes in the base system warrant a new install media.

Besides
featuring the much-loved "rolling-release" update
mechanism, Arch Linux is also renowned for its fast and powerful
package manager called "Pacman", the ability to install
software packages from source code, easy creation of binary
packages thanks to its AUR infrastructure, and the ever
increasing software repository of well-tested packages. Its
highly-regarded documentation, complemented by the excellent Arch
Linux Handbook makes it possible for even less experienced Linux
users to install and customise the distribution. The powerful
tools available at the user's disposal mean that the distro is
infinitely customisable to the most minute detail and that no two
installations can possibly be the same.

On the
negative side, any rolling-release update mechanism has its
dangers: a human mistake creeps in, a library or dependency goes
missing, a new version of an application already in the
repository has a yet-to-be-reported critical bug... It's not
unheard of to end up with an unbootable system following a Pacman
upgrade. As such, Arch Linux is a kind of distribution that
requires its users to be alert and to have enough knowledge to
fix any such possible problems. Also, the infrequent install
media releases mean that sometimes it is no longer possible to
use the old media to install the distribution due to important
system changes or lack of hardware support in the older Linux
kernel.

CentOS
Launched
in late 2003, CentOS
is a community project with the goals of rebuilding the source
code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) into an installable
Linux distribution and to provide timely security updates for all
included software packages. To put in more bluntly, CentOS is a
RHEL clone. The only technical difference between the two
distributions is branding - CentOS replaces all Red Hat
trademarks and logos with its own. Nevertheless, the relations
between Red Hat and CentOS remain amicable and many CentOS
developers are in active contact with, or even employed directly
by, Red Hat.

CentOS is often seen as a reliable server
distribution. It comes with the same set of well-tested and
stable Linux kernel and software packages that form the basis of
its parent, Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Despite being a community
project run by volunteers, it has gained a reputation for being a
solid, free alternative to the more costly server products on the
market, especially among experienced Linux system administrators.
CentOS is also suitable as an enterprise desktop solution,
specifically where stability, reliability and long-term support
are preferred over latest software and features. Like RHEL,
CentOS is supported with approximately 7-10 years of security
updates.

Despite its advantages, CentOS might not be
the best solution in all deployment scenarios. Those users who
prefer a distribution with the latest Linux technologies and
newest software packages should look elsewhere. Major CentOS
versions, which follow RHEL versioning, are only released every 2
- 3 years, while "point" releases (e.g. 5.1) tend to
arrive in 6 - 9 month intervals. The point releases do not
usually contain any major features (although they do sometimes
include support for more recent hardware) and only a handful of
software packages may get updated to newer versions. The Linux
kernel, the base system and most application versions remain
unchanged, but occasionally a newer version of an important
software package (e.g. LibreOffice or Firefox) may be provided on
an experimental basis. As a side project, CentOS also builds
updated packages for the users of its distributions, but the
repositories containing them are not enabled by default as they
may break upstream compatibility.

Pros:Extremely
well-tested, stable and reliable; free to download and use;
comes with 7+ years of free security updates;

Cons:Lacks
latest Linux technologies; occasionally the project fails to
live up its promise to deliver timely security updates and new
stable releases

Available
editions:Installation
DVDs and installable live CDs (with GNOME) for i386 and x86_64
processors; older versions (3.x and 4.x) also available for
Alpha, IA64 and IBM z-series (s390, s390x) processors.

PCLinuxOSPCLinuxOS
was first announced in 2003 by Bill Reynolds, better known as
"Texstar". Prior to creating his own distribution,
Texstar was already a well-known developer in the Mandrake Linux
community of users for building up-to-date RPM packages for the
popular distribution and providing them as a free download. In
2003 he decided to build a new distribution, initially based on
Mandrake Linux, but with several significant usability
improvements. The goals? It should be beginner-friendly, have
out-of-the box support for proprietary kernel modules, browser
plugins and media codecs, and should function as a live CD with a
simple and intuitive graphical installer.

Several
years and development releases later, PCLinuxOS is rapidly
approaching its intended state. In terms of usability, the
project offers out-of-the-box support for many technologies most
Windows-to-Linux migrants would expect from their new operating
system. On the software side of things, PCLinuxOS is a
KDE-oriented distribution, with a customised and always
up-to-date version of the popular desktop environment. Its
growing software repository contains other desktops, however, and
offers a great variety of desktop packages for many common tasks.
For system configuration, PCLinuxOS has retained much of
Mandriva's excellent Control Centre, but has replaced its package
management system with APT and Synaptic, a graphical package
management front-end.

On the negative side, PCLinuxOS
lacks any form of roadmap or release goals. Despite growing
community involvement in the project, most development and
decision-making remains in the hands of Texstar who tends to be
on the conservative side when judging the stability of a release.
As a result, the development process of PCLinuxOS is often
arduous. For example, despite frequent calls for a 64-bit
edition, the developers held off producing a 64-bit build until
fairly recently. Furthermore, the project does not provide any
security advisories, relying instead on the users' willingness to
keep their system up-to-date via the included package management
tools.

Slackware
LinuxSlackware
Linux, created by Patrick Volkerding in 1992, is the oldest
surviving Linux distribution. Forked from the now-discontinued
SLS project, Slackware 1.0 came on 24 floppy disks and was built
on top of Linux kernel version 0.99pl11-alpha. It quickly became
the most popular Linux distribution, with some estimates putting
its market share to as much as 80% of all Linux installations in
1995. Its popularity decreased dramatically with the arrival of
Red Hat Linux and other, more user-friendly distributions, but
Slackware Linux still remains a much-appreciated operating system
among the more technically-oriented system administrators and
desktop users.

Slackware Linux is a highly technical,
clean distribution, with only a very limited number of custom
utilities. It uses a simple, text-based system installer and a
comparatively primitive package management system that does not
resolve software dependencies. As a result, Slackware is
considered one of the cleanest and least buggy distributions
available today - the lack of Slackware-specific enhancements
reduces the likelihood of new bugs being introduced into the
system. All configuration is done by editing text files. There is
a saying in the Linux community that if you learn Red Hat, you'll
know Red Hat, but if you learn Slackware, you'll know Linux. This
is particularly true today when many other Linux distributions
keep developing heavily customised products to meet the needs of
less technical Linux users.

While this philosophy of
simplicity has its fans, the fact is that in today's world,
Slackware Linux is increasingly becoming a "core system"
upon which new, custom solutions are built, rather than a
complete distribution with a wide variety of supported software.
The only exception is the server market, where Slackware remains
popular, though even here, the distribution's complex upgrade
procedure and lack of officially supported automated tools for
security updates makes it increasingly uncompetitive. Slackware's
conservative attitude towards the system's base components means
that it requires much manual post-installation work before it can
be tuned into a modern desktop system.

FreeBSDFreeBSD,
an indirect descendant of AT&T UNIX via the Berkeley Software
Distribution (BSD), has a long and turbulent history dating back
to 1993. Unlike Linux distributions, which are defined as
integrated software solutions consisting of the Linux kernel and
thousands of software applications, FreeBSD is a tightly
integrated operating system built from a BSD kernel and the
so-called "userland" (therefore usable even without
extra applications). This distinction is largely lost once
installed on an average computer system - like many Linux
distributions, a large collection of easily installed, (mostly)
open source applications are available for extending the FreeBSD
core, but these are usually provided by third-party contributors
and aren't strictly part of FreeBSD.

FreeBSD has
developed a reputation for being a fast, high-performance and
extremely stable operating system, especially suitable for web
serving and similar tasks. Many large web search engines and
organisations with mission-critical computing infrastructures
have deployed and used FreeBSD on their computer systems for
years. Compared to Linux, FreeBSD is distributed under a much
less restrictive license, which allows virtually unrestricted
re-use and modification of the source code for any purpose. Even
Apple's Mac OS X is known to have been derived from FreeBSD.
Besides the core operating system, the project also provides over
24,000 software applications in binary and source code forms for
easy installation on top of the core FreeBSD.

While
FreeBSD can certainly be used as a desktop operating system, it
doesn't compare well with popular Linux distributions in this
department. The text-mode system installer offers little in terms
of hardware detection or system configuration, leaving much of
the dirty work to the user in a post-installation setup. In terms
of support for modern hardware, FreeBSD generally lags behind
Linux, especially in supporting cutting-edge desktop and laptop
gadgets, such as wireless network cards or digital cameras. Those
users seeking to exploit the speed and stability of FreeBSD on a
desktop or workstation should consider one of the available
desktop FreeBSD projects, rather than FreeBSD itself.

Pros:Fast
and stable; availability of over 24,000 software applications
(or "ports") for installation; very good documentation

Cons:Tends
to lag behind Linux in terms of support for new and exotic
hardware, limited availability of commercial applications; lacks
graphical configuration tools